In person For the v Ms S Neyland, HR consultant — 2024

The claimant, Mr S Beaulah, was employed as a panel beater from 9 January 2020. The respondent, LSJ The Car Body Repair Specialist Limited, was a small car repair business owned by Mr Roger. The tribunal accepted that by late 2022 the business was in financial difficulty and that Mr Roger took advice from an accountant and from Ms S Neyland. He decided that a redundancy was needed to achieve cost savings, but delayed action until January 2023 so as not to spoil Christmas.

The tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was redundancy: the respondent’s need for panel-beating work had diminished. It accepted Mr Roger’s evidence that the claimant was the only realistic candidate for redundancy, because paint work was specialist and essential, the apprentice was not a realistic source of savings, and Mr Roger himself could undertake panel beating if necessary. The tribunal accepted that the claimant was told on 21 January 2023 that he was at risk of redundancy and was given a letter dated 20 January 2023; it rejected the claimant’s case that he had been told he was being made redundant with immediate effect.

The tribunal also found that the claimant did not engage with the redundancy letter or make proposals during the consultation period. When he did not respond, the respondent confirmed dismissal with notice on 27 January 2023. The claimant argued that the respondent should have offered self-employment or part-time work, but the tribunal held that self-employment would only have arisen after dismissal and that, in the circumstances, the absence of an unsolicited proposal for part-time work did not fall outside the range of reasonable conduct.

Applying the redundancy fairness analysis in the context of the respondent’s size and administrative resources, the tribunal held that Mr Roger’s decisions at each stage were reasonable and that the procedure stayed within reasonable bounds. It therefore found that Mr Beaulah was not unfairly dismissed and that his claim failed. The judgment records no remedy award.